


(Not All) Changes Are Welcomed

by Aurrus



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Body Swap, M/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 23:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurrus/pseuds/Aurrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A spell backfires, and Loki and Tony swap bodies. It’s not that bad, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not All) Changes Are Welcomed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IsahBellah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsahBellah/gifts).



> I wanted to practice my writing, so I asked for prompts on tumblr; originally I planned to write just a few drabbles, but at least this one escalated quickly :P   
> This is for IsahBellah, who prompted me a body swap AU - I'm not sure I did it right, but as the rest of the idea was left to me, this is what I came up with.

“Something tells me this was not exactly your intention,” Tony mused, kicking the pile of metal on the ground with the tip of his boot. 

Well, not exactly ‘his’, and that was the problem.

“You truly are a genius, Stark,” Loki cursed, twitching in the suit. Tony scratched (not) his chin, unnervingly smooth, and wondered what was worse – talking with another voice or hearing somebody talk with his voice. “Take it off!”

“And here’s the moment a god asks me to disrobe him,” Tony snickered, crouching down and drumming (not) his slender fingers against the familiar red metal chest plate. “Can I get it in written?”

“Shut up and take this stupid thing off,” Loki grumbled, and well. Watching him struggle with the suit, not even being able to control the basic movements (the systems broke down a few minutes ago, so Tony couldn’t really blame him for being unaccustomed to the manuals) and cursing… it was too funny not to laugh.

His own laugh, now sounding too much like Loki’s, gave him start, and Tony trailed off, but the smug grin still played on (not) his thin lips.

“If I help you,” he stressed the condition, once again running his fingers over the warm metal, “will you tell me what was your spell supposed to do originally?”

“Not this,” Loki grunted and finally managed to sit and brush his hand away angrily. 

Tony rolled his eyes.

“It was supposed to rip your mind from your body, not… swap our bodies.” 

Tony absently caught the armored hand that was trying to scratch on the faceplate. Only then did the information caught up with him.

“It was supposed to do _what?!”_

Loki slowly turned his head in Tony’s direction. If he hadn’t the helmet on, he probably would’ve looked like somebody dealing with an annoying and not very bright child.

And of course it was the moment the Avengers chose to surround them.

“What did you do to him?” Steve demanded while Thor raised his – whoa, not his hammer!

“Wait!” they both cried simultaneously, and Thor, surprisingly, listened. He frowned, as did the others, but, to Tony’s apparent relief, lowered Mjollnir. Probably it had something to do with the way he threw his hands up in surrender and drew in his head, but whatever.

“Brother?” Thor approached them carefully. Tony shook his head.

“No, big man, it’s me, ugh, well, not me – shit,” he ran his hands through his – Loki’s – hair. “That’s the problem – we, ugh, we switched places.”

“Bullshit,” Clint snorted, the bowstring dangerously tight. “You really think we’d buy it?”

There was a loud clang somewhere behind him, and Tony winced painfully, not daring to look back.

“Yes,” came Loki’s – Tony’s – calm, if a little bit pissed, voice. “You’d better ‘buy’ it, Barton, because it’s true.”

“You are not to be trusted, brother,” Thor sighed almost regretfully, funnily turning his head from Loki to Tony, not sure to whom he was speaking. “I’m afraid, Clint is -”

“Remember that one time when I found you and Volstagg -”

“Enough,” Thor suddenly was speaking very pointedly to Loki. Was that flush on his face? Tony narrowed his eyes. Oh, yes, it definitely was. “My friends, they are speaking the truth,” he declared, turning to the others.

Tony, on the opposite, turned to Loki. He grimaced at the sight of torn out face plate in – until recently – his own hand and sighed wearily.

“Okay, what was that?” he asked quietly, intrigued and completely unheard by others over Thor’s loud explanation of current situation. “That one time you were speaking about?”

Loki rolled his eyes.

~*~*~

“You want me to believe that you have changed bodies.”

To say Fury was pissed at them was to call a prowling dangerous predator a playing pet. Not the best analogy, but Tony couldn’t think of anything else with the way he was pacing around the conference room, nostrils flaring. He also was _growling_ , for fuck’s sake; for a moment Tony was almost afraid Fury was going to skin them and eat them right there.

“ _I_ don’t want anything from you, director,” Loki sneered. It was weird, hearing his intonations in Tony’s voice; and by the way the others were shifting in their places uncomfortably, Tony wasn’t the only one who thought so. “But it seems you have no other choice.”

Fury paused for a second, trying to burn him with his glare, and then started pacing again.

“And of course you’re not going to change it back,” he spitted through gritted teeth. It was funny, in fact; while everyone else was going through inner conflict, taken aback by the swap, Fury had no such problems. He has always been pissed at them both, after all, and Tony wasn’t sure it was Loki who won between them two. Loki was a criminal which Fury could fight with, and Tony was an Avenger, who Fury had to work with, whether he liked it or not, so he probably had no qualms about which body to channel his wrath at. Maybe it even didn’t make a difference for him.

As one could guess, Tony was enjoying himself no matter what. 

So he was stuck in the body of his enemy; a very hot, strong, godly body, and while he loved his own fair and square, he also was perfectly alright with this one. He didn’t believe he was stuck in Loki’s form forever, so no need to panic here; and until it’s all was over, he could as well take full advantage of the situation.

“Believe it or not, but I’m not exactly enamored with the idea of staying in this weak body,” Loki snapped back, completely ignoring Tony’s ‘hey!’.

“Then change again,” Clint leaned forward over the table. “Trust me, you’re annoying little shit even with your usual look, it doesn’t give you any more points in provoking us.”

“A flatterer,” Loki curled his upper lip in disgust. “While the idea is most tempting, I’d gladly return everything to its rightful places, but,” he had to raise his voice a little to be heard, “there’s a little… problem.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Tony murmured, examining his hands. These were one hell of hands, how didn’t he get wet dreams about them before? Well, he surely was going to now…

Loki’s next words, however, once again startled him out of his reverie.

“This body is incapable of doing any magiс because of this… thing,” he touched the reactor absently and immediately snatched his hand back like in fear or in disgust. Or maybe both. Again, Tony couldn’t blame him; it took him not one month to get used to the feeling of something unnatural in his chest, so he could only guess what Loki was feeling at the moment. Nothing too pleasant, though, that one for sure. That served him well, he thought, smiling ruefully.

“And what about me?” he prompted, shrugging and lifting his eyes to look around the room. “This body has to have magic, right?”

Loki growled and closed his eyes, dropping his head on his hands.

Even Thor looked at him indulgently.

Well, the others didn’t, but Thor usually was on his side, so it was weird.

“It takes a lot of efforts and time to learn the ways of magic,” he sighed, and now it became clear – he was quoting Loki, obviously. Okay then; he wasn’t indulgent, he was just trained to react this way when one dared to question the power of magic, no doubt by having done it himself one too many times. “More time than you probably have, Anthony.”

“Magic is not just about the body’s sources,” Loki added sourly, looking at him through his fingers. No, Tony wasn’t going to get over the fact he was literally talking to himself; like, never. It was one thing to be in another body – shit, he was almost used to it, what with his suits – but completely other to look at his very own face, knowing it was the other person. He shook his head.

“Maybe there’s some other magician who could…”

“No,” Loki groaned and slumped in his seat. “It was my own spell, besides, it didn’t even work as it should,” he gave Tony a nasty glance, “because of someone’s _implants_.”

“Hey, not my fault,” Tony protested. “It’s yours miscalculation, not mine, and you already knew about my reactor and it’s –”

“That’s enough!” Fury barked, and everybody, including Loki (surprisingly, but then again, he must have felt uncomfortable enough in his new vulnerable body to comply, Tony supposed), fell silent. Fury rubbed his temples, scowling, and finally sighed. “I loath to admit it, but we can’t just throw him into the cell while he’s in Stark’s body,” he spoke with clear distaste. “We need Iron Man _and_ Tony Stark.”

Tony suddenly felt like something was off. Like something crucial was off.

By the nervous glance Loki gave him, he felt this way, too.

And there it was.

“You two,” Fury indicated at them both, “are to stay under our supervision, and you’d better think of something to change everything back. And should I see one of you without the other in close proximity,” he glowered at them, “I won’t think twice before throwing you in custody, no matter whom.” 

A house arrest in constant company of an arch-enemy. _Brilliant._

Just what Tony was dreaming about.

~*~*~

“You know, you actually look nice in it,” Tony commented on his own look, critically observing his reflection. Sure, Loki’s body was swimming in his t-shirt, but it looked almost cute; would’ve been even more cute if he had anything remotely close to comfortable pants as well, because his own jeans were too short for this body, and the pair he borrowed from Steve was constantly trying to fall down from the slim hips. Loki was currently sulking in the corner, arms crossed and face dark; he was in Tony’s clothes as well, which wasn’t surprising. Well, for him it might have been, but for the others he looked like… well, like Tony. 

“Why must you dress in such filthy clothes is beyond me,” he muttered. Tony sneered, tossing his hair back – still weird, but he kind of liked this gesture. 

“What, did you expect me to stay in your battle attire? Yeah, no will do. I can admit it’s cool, but you can’t walk in it the whole day, can you?”

Loki didn’t answer.

“Okay,” Tony plopped on the couch and put his legs on the coffee table, admiring their length idly. He decided not to comment on it, though, least Loki would finally decide to try and kill him while they were alone. “Would you mind enlightening me about your motives and plans now?”

“We changed places, we need to turn everything back, what do you not understand, Stark?” Loki snapped, giving him a nasty look. Tony did his best not to look at him; it helped that hearing his own voice was not the same when he wasn’t the one speaking, but looking himself in the eye was still unnerving. 

“How are we going to return our bodies, genius?” he snorted, absently playing with the remote. “Any plans? Ideas? Dark voodoo rituals that would make me bleed from ears?”

Loki groaned, rubbing his face and grimacing at the feel of Tony’s goatee. 

“Just one plan that would result in my headache,” he muttered sullenly. “If not for your stupid reactor…”

“Hey,” Tony finally turned to look at him sharply. “Enough with that, Reindeer Games. This is what keeps you alive now, so deal with it; if I wasn’t so fond of that body, I could just rip this ‘stupid reactor’ off and end a shitload of our problems at once,” he cocked his eyebrow, irritated.

For a second Loki was just looking at him blankly, and then he lowered his eyes, oddly silent.

“You want my death that much? Enough to think of it while I’m in your own body?” he asked quietly. Tony shifted in his place, perturbed by the words, too plain and quiet to be mocking. He didn’t really wish Loki death; he wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea as in he wouldn’t grieve should Loki die, but if it was possible, he would gladly kick his godly ass back to their Wonderland instead of killing him. No need to raise a conflict of an intergalactic scale, after all.

“Don’t do that,” he huffed. “I refuse to feel guilty for that. Should I need to, I won’t hesitate to kill you; if I don’t, I wouldn’t, and that’s it. And another thing – let me remind you, _you planned to rip my mind from my body!_ ”

Loki frowned, turning away.

“It would have returned eventually,” he murmured unintelligibly. “In the worst possible variant you would’ve regained consciousness in your grave. Maybe it would’ve been unpleasant, but I highly doubt it would’ve killed you.” 

Tony gaped, but Loki wasn’t even looking at him, so he sagged in his seat and thought about it, hard. 

The silence that fell after that was heavy and solemn, not even the cheerful sounds of some silly TV-show that Tony turned on made it more bearable; and Tony couldn’t really bother listening to it, anyway. He was studying the tracking SHIELD bracelet on his wrist, unhappy with the idea to be stuck here for an unknown amount of time with Loki, until the show was off and Loki stirred somewhere behind him. A quick glance showed that he, too, was watching small light on his matching bracelet with displeasure; he quickly snapped his head when he felt Tony’s eyes on him and scowled a little.

“Okay, what plan?” Tony asked abruptly, turning on the couch so he could sit on it facing Loki. He folded his arms on the backrest and put his chin on them. “You said you have a plan. What did you mean?”

“I meant that it would probably kill me,” Loki snarled, lowering his eyes again and twisting the bracelet. “Or that I would kill you in the process. I’m not sure which would happen earlier considering our… circumstances.”

“Out with it,” Tony demanded. He raised both eyebrows at the way Loki’s lips curled slightly.

And then he looked at Tony again. And grinned.

“Why, I’m going to teach you magic.”

For the second time of the day Tony felt like falling, and though this time it was nothing like the previous – when he felt a sickening pull in the pit of his stomach before suddenly the world turned upside down and then he was watching his suit falling on the ground with undignified yelp while _he_ was standing where Loki has just been – it still was pretty disorientating.

“You’re going to do _what?”_

~*~*~

Loki was right, it was going to kill them both, either with frustration, or with unexpected success on Tony’s part.

“Shit!” he yelled, watching the fuming hole in his wall with round eyes. Loki was curling on himself, covering his head, only a few feet away.

“I can’t decide whether I underestimated or overrated your abilities,” Loki coughed, moving away. Then he was close again, grabbing Tony’s hands in his and pulling unpleasantly. “Magic is not just power, Stark, it creates, not just destroys everything you see!”

Tony scowled and pushed him away, murmuring soft ‘sorry’ when Loki barely escaped being thrown to the nearest wall. It appeared magic wasn’t the only thing Tony needed to learn to control; he was also a happy owner of godly powers now, and at the beginning of their ‘lessons’ his newly discovered strength became a problem when Loki tried to position him and he refused to be touched. 

“At least I can grasp the concept,” Tony grunted, rubbing his hands against his sweatpants. “Okay, tell me again how I do it.”

They’ve been practicing for two weeks now, and in Tony’s opinion his results were outstanding for such a short period of time; Loki sneered and mocked him, of course, saying that his body often acted on reflexes, too experienced to let Tony fail as miserably as was expected, but Tony could see in his eyes that he was impressed.

And that was the other side of spending a lot of time together – they started to learn things about each other. Different things, small things, crucial things, what with Loki’s new inability to stay sober as long as he used to and a couple of drunken revelations sobbed on Tony’s chest one evening, and with Tony’s willingness to reciprocate in turn – because honestly, Loki deserved at least that much. 

“You could work with us, you know,” he offered later that evening, chewing on his slice of pizza. Loki sneered at him. 

“Just how do you think it will look like, Stark? As soon as we switch back I’d be lucky to get out sooner than your friends capture me, and here you offer me a deal. I don’t think it’s wise.”

“No,” Tony slowly agreed, smiling a little. “But what if we don’t tell them? And then when something happens and I’m needed, we would go together. You know, as if I couldn’t stay away even in this body, and you had to follow me because I asked you to and because your body wouldn’t fit in the suit, and the Avengers need Iron Man as well.”

Loki snorted and shook his head incredulously, but Tony could see he was thinking about his words. 

He made a mental fist-bump in the air.

~*~*~

In the end, it took them another month to work everything out and switch back. By that time the Avengers were already getting used both to their new appearances and to Loki’s presence in the tower, slowly warming up to him. That he looked like their friend helped on subconscious level, of course, as did the knowing that inside his body was their friend.

Tony took a deep breath, getting accustomed to the feeling of his own body once again, and grinned at Loki, who was swaying a little, eyes half-closed and small smile on his lips, no doubt relishing in the feeling of his magic. Tony understood him; it was a powerful feeling, indeed, though he couldn’t say he’d miss it, not really. 

Then Loki opened his eyes and looked at him sheepishly.

“When you offered… to keep it a secret for a little longer, were you…?”

“ _Sir_ ,” Jarvis interrupted him, and Loki’s face fell. Clearly the moment was lost for him, and Tony wanted to curse his AI, but- “ _I’m afraid the Avengers need your assistance_.”

Oh.

Just perfect. And now he really meant it.

He grinned and slapped Loki’s shoulder.

“You’d better pretend you’re not very good with your magic,” he said, brushing past him to get his suit. “I was still a little bit clumsy, after all.”

Loki frowned.

“What –”

“I was serious, Loki,” Tony smiled softly. “Come on, there’s only so much time they would give us to argue on whether or not we’re coming considering we’re still… changed.”

Loki chuckled, but followed nevertheless. The way his face relaxed gave Tony a strange warm feeling, and he patted Loki’s shoulder again.

He even pretended he was not sure how to control the suit when they arrived to fight some second-rate villain. In turn, Loki did his best to imitate Tony’s unruly bursts of destroying power, alternating it with precise mastered blows of his own when nobody noticed.

They worked as a team, surprisingly, and if anybody noticed something was off, they didn’t comment on it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everybody who read it!  
> I'm sorry for any mistakes, the point of this (and a few following) works is to practice enough to make as little of them as possible, but for now it's probably far from ideal. So, sorry :/


End file.
